Hina, soon to be starting high school, just moved to a new town. Out for a walk, she meets an older girl fishing. Kuroiwa turns out to attend the same school, and she…basically proceeds to bully Hina into the joining the fishing club, despite Hina’s own strong preference for handicrafts. Of course, technically it’s called the Breakwater Club, named for the location of its activities, but whatever. Later Hina attends the club’s first meeting and, after much awkward angst, explains she doesn’t want to join. The other three girls of the club convince her to try fishing with them once. Despite finding many aspects of fishing super gross (a feeling I share), by the end of the day Hina caves to pressure and decides that she’ll stick with this club.
This story about a club of high school girls might bring to mind other anime such as last season’s Asteroid in Love, a delightful example of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre. Alas, Breakwater is nothing like that. It’s just a show where three girls pressure another to do things she’d rather not. Since Hina seems miserable most of the time, I spent the episode feeling bad for her. The show failed to convince me that Hina had even the least bit of interest in fishing or that she liked the other girls in the club. Also, there’s not much cuteness to the other girls of the Breakwater Club, which means this isn’t a CGDCT story and can’t rely on cuteness to gloss over elements that might otherwise be grating. On a positive note, the art is beautiful. If you really enjoy fishing, you might like this series. Otherwise, don’t bother. I know I won’t.
Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater can be streamed on Funimation.
Hmmm I will watch at least the first episode. I’ve fished a few times, though it’s not my thing, I wouldn’t mind seeing how the anime adapted the hobby 🙂
[…] First Impression: Jeskai Angel […]